Poindexter's Wrath
by detectivejigsaw
Summary: After "The Last Mabelcorn," Ford reads over Dipper's entry in the journal about his experiences with Bill Cipher. Turns into a slight stream-of-consciousness. Slight spoilers for Journal 3.


**This was inspired by a guest review in "Shooting Star's Regrets." So thank you, anonymous writer. I hope this lives up to your expectations, if you ever read it.**

* * *

After the Shack was safely encased in the protection spell and he had been left to his own devices in the basement, Ford picked up Journal 3 and flipped through it until he found the entries the children had written on their encounters with Bill Cipher.

Despite how (somewhat) nonchalantly they had talked about managing to beat him twice, the way Dipper had freaked out when he saw Ford's memories of Bill, and then thought that perhaps he was currently being possessed by the demon, gave the old man a nasty suspicion that one or both of the experiences deserved closer examination. He might have glanced at the second one when he was first flipping through the journal, seeing the...slightly unorthodox entries that had been added in his absence, but not enough to really glean much; he didn't think he'd seen the first one at all. Had he seen it, and the picture of that triangular monster that was part of the section, he would have started these safety precautions with the unicorn hair and whatnot a lot sooner.

Making himself comfortable on the sofa, Ford now read both sections thoroughly.

* * *

The first entry had a primary focus on Dipper's perusal of Stanley's memories, with only a cursory mention of the demon himself-Ford definitely did not smile at the memory of that bar mitzvah, or feel a pang at the empty swing set. At all. But he saw from the picture Dipper had drawn-the boy was a gifted artist, whether he realized it or not-that they had, indeed, fought Bill with kittens. While entertaining, it provided no satisfying insights into what he was looking for, however, so he turned to the other entry.

At first glance his main focus was on the fact that it was written by Mabel, whose somewhat...interesting opinions and comments were not quite as scientific if he would have liked. If he was honest with himself, though, they were not unlike his occasional annotations, and furthermore, her drawing of Bill possessing Dipper ("Bipper," as she referred to him) was quite effective; just looking at its yellow eyes gave him the chills.

Ford got even bigger chills from reading the actual entry.

Bill had done actual physical damage to Dipper's body?

The thought made horror and outrage blend together in his chest and stomach; he could handle whatever Bill dished out to him, he was a grown man who had spent years traveling through other dimensions and being exposed to all sorts of dangers. But Dipper wasn't even a teenager yet, he shouldn't have to deal with this...

And then he read the note Bill had written.

* * *

There was a long moment in which, to an outside observer, he appeared to be sitting perfectly still and serene. Except for a slight whitening around the knuckles, and perhaps a tightening of his jaw, there would be no outside indications that there was anything wrong. Inside, though, he felt almost as though a tiger had come to life inside his chest cavity, and furthermore, it was roaring for Bill's _blood_ for daring to plan on murdering a member of his family.

Ford got up, slamming the journal into the sofa cushions, and started pacing the floor in an attempt to calm down, keeping his soft snarls of rage quiet.

More than ever, he was determined to seal this blasted rift, make sure Bill stayed trapped in the nightmare realm for all eternity.

Not just for the world, to his surprise-to make sure that neither Dipper nor Mabel was in his grasp ever again.

The safety of these two children, he'd realized by now, was the one thing he and Stanley could at least pretend to look each other in the eye about. No matter how much bad blood there was between them, they could agree on a burning need to protect their niece and nephew, even if they couldn't seem to agree on anything else.

But hey, that wasn't his fault; if his twin couldn't be a grown-up about Ford wanting to become a member of regular society again and not wanting to live in his _own basement_ for the rest of his life, that was his problem. He didn't need to reconcile anything with him.

It wasn't like he secretly kept a photo of them when they were children in his coat pocket, or felt kind of bad about punching Stanley in the face for thinking that the fate of the whole universe was less important than his own brother-

Ford shook his head, and sank back onto the sofa with a sigh as his rage bled out of him for now.

He wasn't sure how his train of thought had transferred from the demon to his brother-it was a toss-up which of them he found harder to contemplate at the moment, and he supposed their somewhat-similar personalities had something to do with it.

Better to go back to thinking about his younger relatives, his emotions were a lot less complicated when it came to them. Particularly Dipper.

Speak of the devil, he should probably tell him about the idea he'd been nursing for the past few days...

* * *

**Don't get me wrong, I love Ford in all his uptight dorky glory. But does anyone else want to smack his and Stan's heads together during the episodes before Weirdmageddon and tell them they're being stupidly stubborn, or is it just me?**


End file.
